неделя, 24 юни 2012 г.

Ah , the summer job! It's that important moment in your life when you learn how hard it is to earn a living. But it's not only that. It can be a great "training" before you dive into the real life and a motivation to study harder . In the end , you not only get money , but you become more mature. Keep in mind though - the summer job is not an experience for everyone. If you want to know if it might be beneficial for you here are the pros and cons down here , they'll help you make up your mind :

Pros- Independence
Have you ever lived on your own for more than two weeks? Well , the summer job is your chance! You're going to learn how to wash , dry and iron your own clothes . It might be a bit arduous if you're a boy , but hey , mommy won't wash your ass all life! You'll also have a lot of money at your disposal and no idea what to do with them. In case you waste them in less than 24 hours and your parents tell you that " you're big enough to take care of yourself " and deny to send you more , then you'll learn something known as " budget management" . Budget management is basically a method to spend your personal money in a prudent and reasonable way. Another more obnoxious way to learn budget management is when you're out of both toilet paper and money.

- Freedom

Every teenager has dreamed for unconstrained freedom and lack of any parental control . Well , that's one of the main pros of your summer job. You'll be literally hundred kilometers away from your parents . You can go to discos whenever you have time , you can buy everything , taste everything and try everything. The money you're going to earn are going to give you enough freedom to have many new experiences. Last summer I tasted every type of cake in a sweet shop. Why? I don't know. I just wanted to. There are other stories about people who tried all kinds of other , largely illegal stuff. If you really want to completely have the advantage of freedom that a summer job gives you , you'd better dump your girlfriend/boyfriend. Long distance relationship is usually painful especially when you're a guy who just hit on a winsome foreign girl and cannot do anything with her because conscience is a b*tch.
- You can practice foreign languages Nearly 90% of the tourists in the Bulgarian black sea resorts are foreign. Whichever widely-known language you're studying , you're probably going to find people to practice it with. It is preferable to know Russian if you're guy (for obvious reasons) and German if you're girl. As my dad says "A foreign language is best learned in the bed/on the beach " . I can certify that this is true! Especially for the words "yes" and "more" in every language you encounter.

- "Personnel-exclusive" prices and perks
If you can certify that you're working somewhere at Sunny Beach and/or Nessebar , you could get some special discounts. For example , you can get into discos like Lazur and Grand De Luxe without an entrance fee. No joke! You'll also be able to buy cheaper food at some places. This happens because the personnel working at Sunny Beach is greatly outnumbered by tourists. We're a small group and we try to support each other as best as we can. A chef who is working in an all-inclusive restaurant is giving out the leftovers from the buffet to the personnel not only from his restaurant , but also to everyone else who works nearby.Cons- Payment to work ratioSummer jobs are jobs that can usually be worked by everyone. This means you're easily replaceable and consequently your salary isn't big enough to motivate you to work . I get paid 1.56lv/hour (a dollar per hour) for being a bartender in an all-inclusive bar. I work 8 hours every day (no days off). If you want to get paid more , you have to take up more responsibility. Jobs that involve working with money /waiter , cashier/ start up at 450leva monthly or at a percent of the income. Keep in mind that Sunny Beach is crowded with tourists , you'll hardly ever have time to have a break while working.

- Obnoxious lodging

Lodging , especially if provided by the employer , isn't 5-star quality . You'll most likely be on the top floor of some house where the temperatures at noon are boiling hot or crammed with 3 other people in a small room. Or both.Or why not a basement lodging? One of my room mates told some appaling stories of the lodgings he had to reside in. In one of the lodgings the humidity was so high that his laptop broke down and his cell phone started malfunctioning. There are really freaky places to reside in out there , so watch out!

- People you will regret meeting

As I previously mentioned , the summer job is a job that is worked by easily replaceable people. It's a job worked by "the masses". Don't expect to meet people who are prospective students at Harvard . In fact, don't expect to meet any kind of people who you will be proud to know. This negative side of the summer job can actually be slightly positive because :

When you come back , you'll be more motivated to study.

Have you ever met a person who has slacked at school all the time? Well, I've met one. No , not one. I've met around ten. And I met them while I was working in the summer. They're all dumb as a pile of bricks. Their views about life are deluded and grotesquely skewed. I was so appalled by their philistine behaviour that I promised myself that I would to all I could to avoid them. One of the most successful ways to avoid stupid people is by studying and meeting their counterparts - intelligent people. Still , it's genuinely interesting to meet these low-lives and subtly deride their their outrageous stupidity. You're going to see how these simple people think - something that's very important if you want to specialize in a managerial job.

That's the summer job in a nutshell. After you gain some experience , you can actually start enjoying it. It's much better than a jejune summer in your hometown (in my case - Yambol) . The party in Sunny Beach never stops. You'll meet many new people and have exciting experiences. So it's not that bad, really!

P.SI decided to give my laptop to my parents so they can bring it back to my hometown . This will cease my access to the internet and , consequently , cease my access to the blog. I'll probably going to write again when I get back on 29th of July. But after that I'm going to pay a visit to my cousin in Italy , so this might be one of my last posts. I hope you enjoyed reading my blog. If not ..well ,then I'm hopeless at writing. :)

вторник, 19 юни 2012 г.

Oh well , I didn't intend to write blogs and have a summer job simultaneously , but hey , plans rarely work out as intended. I'll keep on writing as оften as possible.

It's been 6 days since I've started work and everything is going well. Having previous experience in working (like..literally ..working for your monthly income!) certainly does help adapting to working conditions.

And since I've mentioned working conditions , let me write down a short story about my recent experiences:

Even though I negotiated for a work as a bartender , I had to start as a piccolo waiter . It's an awful job! I had shifts which completely exhausted me mentally and physically. 3 hours intensive work followed by 2-hour break , repeated 3 times daily - for breakfast , for lunch and eventually for supper. Carrying plates , polishing cutlery and carrying 20 kilogram water tanks brought me intense boredom and pain in the back.

But , thankfully , it's all over now! I'm a barman! At last! Hallelujah! Unfortunately me and my roomate (who's a life guard) had to move to a room with two other people. I can't really say that I'm impressed with my new room since we're quite crammed and I have to put my belongings on a grocery store stall . Aye , the management decided that wardrobes could be too luxurious for the personnel , so they put god damned grocery store stalls. It's still better than the old room which had nails on the walls and a few chairs who were put next to each one and formed some kind of chair sofa.

Apart from that , I find the position as a barman relatively facile . It's often relaxing because you can chat with your clients and that definitely makes time go by faster than carrying dishes and watching people eat. Being a barman also means you work on 8 hour shifts and you've got plenty of free time to do whatever you wish. And since this is Sunny Beach , there's a lot to do.

Being part of the "Sunny Beach Personnel" has it's pros and cons and I'm going to write about them in detail in my next publication. Enough for this one!

сряда, 13 юни 2012 г.

The time for a new adventure has come. Since last year , I started to regard the summer job as something less obnoxious and tiring. And why should anyone regard it as such? Sure , it gets some time and effort to get used to the workload , but after that it's all sunbathing , adventure and sports! God , I've been reminiscing of last summer's killer workouts under the hot sun. And let's not forget the whole carspotting! My eyes had the pleasure to see some exquisite rides , vintage retro automobiles and great sportscars. Oh, and all the new people I met - people from all over the world! I'm eager to do it again!

Having a summer job in another town/city is a great way to become independent and an even a greater way to learn to wash and iron your clothes. Well , so long the gaffes from last summer's ironing attempts! I'm a master now! I can iron my shirt in 10 minutes without burning me or the t-shirt or my room mate! Or causing a conflagration ( that has never happened).

The summer job is an unique experience and I recommend it to everyone. Although your first summer might not be outstandingly bright , you'll definitely be sated and paid well ... if you happen to find a decent employer , of course . You might also have time to study if you're good at time management. That's what I'm planning to emphasize on this summer . Aye , studying. Because after 5 years of slacking there's a lot to catch up.

And since I'm going to be in Sunny Beach in the next month and a half , I'll to try to diversify the posts here. Hopefully I'm going to have time to do that when I start working. We'll see!

Recently I came a cross a widely discussed correlation between SAT scores and family income . And I couldn't desist myself not to comment it here . I presume the majority of the people who've seen it have explained it to themselves simply: students with rich parents had private tutors or had somehow "bought" their high scores. But to me , this graph reveals a lot more. My social status rose abruptly 2 years ago , with my family income rising fourth fold. I can literally tell the difference between what's like being a poor student and being a rich student. Although the empirical data is american , to my observations this correlation is valid worldwide. Here's why:

First, let's ask ourselves a question: What makes rich kids smarter than their poorer peers? When I was poor I didn't have my own desk , nor a tranquil family atmosphere - my parents argued at a daily basis. When summer came I had to work so that I could afford buying decent clothing and have money for school supplies. On top of that I grew addicted to video games since the real world really sucked for me. My friend circle consisted of people with similar interests , which meant I wasn't socially motivated to study harder. How could you find time and motivation to study with all that pressure anyway?

And then I suddenly became an upper middle class student. Working in the summer became optional. I had a desk , money to buy not only school supplies , but workbooks and everything else I needed for some extra knowledge in what interested me. My social environment went through a complete overhaul , which resulted establishing friendships with ambitious and smart students who aspire to study in top foreign universities. I dare to posit that even my personality changed significantly.And since my life was great , I lost my addiction to gaming. The whole change made me go further than anyone else in my school in academic aspect. And no , I didn't get tutored or anything. I did the studying all by myself . But this couldn't have been possible If I hadn't had all the good studying conditions and prosperity-oriented friends. And I can only dream about the possibilities if this happened earlier - Language vacations , model united nations participation , better education and much more.

There's also the inherited intelligence factor.Frankly , if your dad has the ability to make 200,000+ $ monthly , you'll also be predisposed to make the same revenue. This might be one of the reasonons why in a world where the salary is majorly defined by academic merit and experience , the rich become wealthier and the poor become more miserable. Of course , there are plenty of other economic and social factiors that influence this trend , but give that correlation graph a second look and think of the education you could get by combining the Writing , CR and Math means of the "poor househould" students. It's approximately 1300. That score can't get you anywhere. This results a formidable part of the poor students not being able to attend a decent college.

This video explains the differences in how wealthier and poorer people think. I concur to the logic this guy has. Like him , I have met people from the different sides of the income spectrum and assesed their characters and ways of thinking. Surrounding yourself with smart and wealthy friends will inevitably make you one of them. The same applies for the opposite . Many of my peers have gone down the wrong road and met the wrong people.

But there will always be exceptions. Exceptions like Barack Obama's father who was born in Kenya but received a scholarship and eventually graduated from Harvard. Then , after realizing that there's nothing else greater to conquer , he returned to Kenya .

вторник, 5 юни 2012 г.

After the prom we had the traditional "prom vacation" in Marmaris. But between Yambol and Marmaris there was a lingering 15 hour trip with a bus. Being stuck in a small place for so long with the only thing to do is talking to others (after a few hours you run out of topics to discuss) and eat isn't very pleasant. But when we eventually arrived , we knew it was worth it.

The symbol of Marmaris is a jewel in earth's globe , which very well describes the resort. It's really a rare combination of great climate , flora and landscape hidden between the mountains of Anatolia.

The jewel of Marmaris

Marmaris is a resort that has a picturesque combination of mountains and sea. The resort itself is in a gulf full with small islands and underwater caves. It's well known by the scuba divers , who often visit the place to explore the underwater beauty of the gulf.

The whole place is crammed with hotels but in an uniform manner , with all safety precautions included. It's nothing like the reckless construction and mess in Sunny Beach. I must admit that Marmaris is a very clean looking resort , considering there's a 400,000 tourist population circulating constantly. And all that is a product of the turk's diligence . No doubt why Turkey is so much ahead of Bulgaria , these people work hard! Everything was top-notch and exceptional. Turks are also much more hospitable than bulgarians . They're great traders and are always open to negotiation. When they recognize that you're bulgarian , they call you "komshu"(neighbour) . Such flattery sure does earn them a lucrative revenue through the tourist season. There are even cases in which they'll invite you to drink tea with them , like the 2 bulgarian girls I met in a gift shop who were conversing with the shop keeper while drinking tea and smoking hookah.

Marmaris has a great night life as well.On Bar Street you can enter the street at midnight and get out in the morning. It's a whole street crammed with tens of clubs and bars , full with people who love to party. The prices compared to the bulgarian clubs are pretty high , but there are no entrance fees so you can still get drunk at a fair price. On the street parallel to bar street is a yach harbour with a statue that looks very terrifying at night , especially when you're drunk:

It's also used to repel drunk people so that they won't dive into the sea.Source

It's also worth mentioning that drivers in marmaris are completely deranged. No, they won't stop on the zebra crossing nor they'll hesitate to trespass a red light. When I was going back from the disco one night , the bus driver decided to step on it and we were going at 100km/h down main street Marmaris. With a bus. Tourists often joke : "The locals used to ride camels 30 years ago , what do you expect?"

Of course , since I'm a graduate from Yambol's Vocational High School of Economics , I had to deal with the "baiganiovshtina" from some of my schoolmates. Baiganiovshtina is a slang word coming from the name Bai Ganio , who's the protagonist of Aleko Konstantinov's series of satirical feuilletons .

Bai Ganio characterizes the bulgarian in a foreign country as ignorant , complacent and low.

Only a scarcity of my class knew English (although the whole class of 2012 has gone through a 5-year English course) and communication looked and sounded hilarious. Some of the tough guys were about to give one of the animators a beating because they "didn't like some of his manners" and part of my class got completely hammered infront of the faces of the hotel's guests. Even I contributed to the "baiganiovshtina" when I made sandwiches from the victuals in the morning menu of the restaurant and hid them in my backpack so I could have something to eat on the way back to Bulgaria.

On the whole , I had a great time. I ate so much that I could work out 2 times a day. The hotel's fitness saloon was quite humble , but it still had all the core lifting equipment. Kudos to the guy managing the place ,

he wasn't very muscular but I must admit he's god at arm wrestling. Haven't seen anyone with a better technique so far!

I'd go back to Marmaris anytime if I had the money and the time. I loved its nature , its people and its

неделя, 3 юни 2012 г.

People get killed every day , every hour and every second worldwide. There are so many superstitions why a certain person got killed. Some say it's fate , others say it's god's judgement being brought upon them or some preternatural force. A girl I used to know got killed by a drunk driver in the USA while driving her bike. I'm certain that everyone who knew the girl asked himself "Why?" when they heard the appalling news. Why such a jovial and positive person deserves such fate? Maybe because she wasn't aware that Florida has some of the worst drivers in the world . What if she was in any other state instead of Florida? Or she knew how reprehensible are Florida's drivers? Her chances to be a victim of a roadkill would be much lower.

In hindsight , it seems to me that all relied on risk management or "how to lower your chances to get killed by random events". Risk management is the more scientific (and therefore more rational) explanation to the event. Thankfully , the words "god" and "fate" don't exist in risk managament's description. It all boils down to what you do and where you live. If you live in the ghetto and you're a member of the local gang , your chances to die are much higher than a middle aged man taking care of his farm in the middle of nowhere. Heck , you can get killed even if you're a kid who's just playing around in the ghetto . Consequently , your life doesn't depend on what god thinks about you or your fate. One simply must be prudent of how he lives and what he does . And it's pretty arduous to protect yourself considering how many ways to die are there . I recall how safe and calm I felt when I had a bike ride in one of The Hague's affluent neighbourhoods , where people drive modern cars , there are bike alleys and everyone obeys the traffic rules and , on the other hand , how I felt in driving between aggressive drivers in more than a decade-old cars.

And let's not forget that there's always serendipity. We can all recall a disaster which someone survived only by luck.But it's good to know that we can have control over our lives as long as we think consciously.

събота, 12 май 2012 г.

My older cousin came to visit me today. It is formidable how one person can make you so elated and invigorate the hope in your aspirations. Being one of the most assiduous young people I've ever known , he maintains good grades , workouts daily and takes care of his girlfriend. Oh , he also spends his summer working as a kitchen assistant in Sozopol (a town by the sea which gets crowded by tourists in the summer , workin there isn't easy).

Seriously , how can you be such a great sportsperson , meritorious student and a diligent worker? The answer is discipline. This person wakes up early in the morning , does a bodybuilder breakfast (musli + egg whites) and goes to study at the university. He rarely misses class. After a long , lignering day of mental workout , he does a hour long physical workout. This happens five days a week. Can you think of any other person in your social milieu who's that disciplined?

I remember a similar type of person being mentioned in Barron's SAT 2400 book. On one of the pages , in the down left corner of the page , there was a short description about a student - a football star (american football) , who was granted acceptance in an Ivy League University . He was mentioned because he aided the writers on making some of the excersises in the preparation book. And this book isn't just a standart preparation book , it is a book for advanced SAT takers , who aim to enter the best universities in the US. The excersises are much harder. I won't be surprised if I see his name in some list with prominent people.

But in order to be that successful , you must be mature enough. For example , my cousin bought a car a few days ago. How does this connect with the whole maturity thing you'd ask? Well , If I asked my cousin a few years ago " Aren't you going to buy a car? " , he'd answer me " Are you crazy?! I'm saving money for a 600cc bike!" . Ever since I've known him , he always wanted to have a motorbike. He was obsessed with the idea! He did buy a bike though , but sold it afterwards with the intention to buy a 1000cc. Instead , he bought a car.

Clearly NOT the kind of car I expected him to buy.

While I was inspecting his car , I asked him "Have you pushed it to the limit , how does it handle?" and other gearhead-specific questions. He laughed and said " Do you know how I drive this car ? Even the public buses overtake me. But tell you what , it's damn comfy." Comfy. Yeah, right. Since when my addicted-to-speed cousin cares about how comfortable a car is?! Since when "comfy" means "cool"? The bike accelerated much faster and had a higher top speed , not to mention the adrenaline surge you felt when you flew this 2 wheel rocket on the highway. But maturity has kicked in his life. He started to acknowledge his parents fears of the dangers of the life as a biker.

Seems like one should wise up a bit in order to succeed. Of course , my cousin hasn't given up his dreams. He's still saving for a more powerful bike , but he spent his money on something sensible. Because he'll need that car - it has a commodious storage space , 4 seats and is relatively fuel efficient - a perfect car for a college student. Also, the chance of getting himself killed while driving is much lower.

And have you seen what some people at our age do with their cars and bikes? They rice them out , drive them like lunatics (NFS IRL pretty much) and brag constantly how "fast" their "rides" are.These "subjects" don't show many signs of intelligence and normal mental activity. And I'm genuinely happy that me and my cousin didn't turn out to be like the them.

In conclusion : being docile throughout your teenage years can save you money , earn you a lucrative future and basically save your life.